Focus

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things..” – Philippians 4:8

Many of you have heard me talk about my dog Annie. She is rescue and is 23 pounds of spoiled rotten dog flesh. We aren’t sure what breeds make up this lovable mutt, but one of them is certainly beagle. Annie loves to run rabbits. It is amazing to watch her sniff one out and then chase it through a field and/or into the woods giving her happy, “Daddy I found one!” yelp the whole way.

I watched her recently stick her nose into the air and sniff, those little nostrils going 90 miles an hour. It was a fine spring day, so there were all kinds of scents in the air. Some guy down the road grilling out, freshly cut grass, hundreds of flowers of all sorts blooming, birds, squirrels and mice. But, there was only one she was looking for – Mr. Rabbit.

Scientists tell us beagles’ ability to discern scents is as much as 10,000 times that of a human. With that much power, it must be kind of hard to sort out just one scent, but she is so in tune with that scent, she can block out all others.

Being able to pick the rabbit scent out of all the others requires intense focus I’m certain.

We are bombarded with all sorts of input every day for all of our senses, and sometimes it can be overwhelming – especially if we don’t have focus.

God’s word reminds us in the verse above that we are to set our “receptors” to focus on that which is good, profitable and righteous and then go after it with all of heart soul and might.